Archive for February 4th, 2013

A decent game by the Raptors against the defending champs but Miami played far better than when the teams met recently in Miami, so the result was a lot more decisive. Turnover issues, missed shots and bad rotating on defence sunk the Raptors. Well, that and the fact these guys are very, very good.

“They got us out of whack. It did not help that Rudy has only had one day of practice. Going into a game where everyone is not on the same page is tough, but this is the NBA. We have to get back to the practice floor and be able to execute plays. You know the problem was that we did not get stops,” said Dwane Casey.

“We lost something in our rotations which is something we cannot do. That is on a team and not on an individual defender.”

Rudy Gay said he still feels a little weird being a Raptor, but things will settle down and he’ll get more comfortable once he gets some practices in. Gay said he is still “feeling my way out there.”

“It’s easy to play with these guys, we have a great group of guys who all want to win. I just want to come here and help with that.”

Gay said he loves the challenge of taking on LeBron James while Terrence Ross said guarding James is a whole lot different than guarding anybody else in the league. “Yeah, he’s kind of in his own categor,” Ross said of James.

Most of the Raptors were rooting for the Ravens in the Super Bowl, especially Gay, a Maryland native.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra respects Toronto’s athleticism.

“They’re aggressive offensively. If you’re late, it’s going to end up in a dunk. They have five or six guys that can compete in the dunk contest. They have that type of athleticism,” Spoelstra said.

Dwyane Wade said Gay would be a big addition for Toronto:

“Rudy is a very good player, he is a guy who can get his shot off at any point,” Wade said.

“They get even more athletic. This team is one of those teams that will continue to get better, especially if they get their confidence going, especially in the second half of the season. It’ll be tougher next time we play them and we have to come with our hard hats again.”

LeBron James agreed. “(Gay) brings another dimension to the team. A guy that can score, rebound, another athletic wing. They are very, very athletic, so they put a lot of pressure on your defence when those guys are in attack mode.”

James enjoyed attending the Maple Leafs-Bruins game on Saturday. “It was awesome, that was my first hockey game and I picked a good one to go to. It was a lot of fun and the people treated us with open arms. Great hospitality.” The ACC patrons greeted the heat with a lot of hospitality on Sunday as well, though Chris Bosh got a lot of boos, which he said motivated him.

A couple more points:

- Kyle Lowry needs to find his game. Practice will help, but we haven’t seen his usual aggression level and his decision-making hasn’t been good. He’s forcing passes.

- Aaron Gray has given the Raptors a huge lift. Until Jonas Valanciunas catches up to the NBA game a little bit more, Gay is going to continue to see a lot of minutes.

- Might be time to cut Alan Anderson’s minutes drastically now that Gay is here. Anderson’s in a bad shooting slump and now isn’t needed to play as much, since Gay is a huge minutes eater. With the playoffs a longshot, Terrence Ross should be getting more minutes than Anderson every night.